January
by duo7700
Summary: Two years since that day. The day I left the comfort of my home. Two years since I noticed something off about my daily routine. AU/OOC First time doing first person POV. Read and review please! Three-shot now.
1. Ghost of Christmas Past

**I got this idea in my head, and I could not get it out. It loosely based upon an original draft of one of my stories in beta.**

**Quickly edited this, please point out any errors you find.**

**-duo7700**

**Tags: AU, OOC**

**Disclaimer: If I owned it, it would be the first thing I mention.**

**January - A Danny Phantom Fanfiction**

**The Ghost of Christmas Past**

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><p>I'm not a fan of this month. I've been skipping and hanging out on the bleachers. Yes, I know it is below freezing, my head isn't full of rocks. I've just never paid attention in classes I don't care about. I like athletics, science and, no doubt to your surprise, math.<p>

I don't give a shit about anything else.

It was two years ago that they fought over me. Not that either wanted to take custody of me, though. I ended up going to live with Kwan and his family. I don't think that my thank-yous are quite enough. Sure, I do most of the chores around the house. I even help out at the loading dock at his dad's store. But I owe them for giving me a home where I feel loved and want… Phantom?

The white-haired ghost had sat down lightly on the bleachers a few rows in front of me, seemingly oblivious to the goings on around him. He didn't notice me, or at least acknowledge me. He was whispering to himself. But I heard two words, "Two years…"

"Hey, uh… Phantom." His green eyes seemed to bore into my soul, eliciting a sharp, painful intake of frigid air. Slowly, realizing who I was, he spoke.

"Has it been two years for you too?" His face looking bored.

The eyes gave it away. He was miserable. "How do you know," I asked, voice shaking slightly.

He turned his head towards the field, "I hang around the school a lot. I've heard mention of it. Conversations between you and Kwan." He turned to look back at me with those emerald gems, "It got irritating after a month."

"Neither of them wanted me…" I told him, voice beginning to crack. He cut me off before I could finish.

"They both blamed you for their marital problems. Deflection is not a healthy thing to grow up with. You're better off."

I stared blankly for a moment. Deflection? I heard the Fenton girl mention that. Blaming things on others, I think. "Yeah. I've never thought of it that way."

The ghost went silent.

"What about you?" I asked the back of his head as tiny specks of white began to fall.

For a few seconds more, he was silent. I began to regret my words when he spoke, "I died."

I had no words in my vocabulary to offer him. He, however, continued on, "It was the same day that you left home, in fact." He was sounding… happy?

"My parents forgot about Christmas," he said, his melancholy tones washed over me, making me feel worse. "Well, just for me. My sister said they started fighting while out shopping for me."

He paused, just long enough for me to say, "Sorry."

He waved a hand in acknowledgement, "Don't be." He floated up next to me, and then sat softly down; the thermos on his waist hitting the metal of the bleachers causing a soft, deep "ding" to reverberate through the aluminum. He let out a sigh and continued, "My parents forgot. You didn't."

Wait, what? I thought hard for a moment. Everyone I got a gift for is still alive. "I didn't get you anything." A small chuckle escaped his lips.

"Nor would I have expected you to," he said, a sad, strange smile on his face, "You were a bully, after all. And a jock. Popular. I was the opposite. But, if you want, I can count you not tossing me in a locker on the last day before break as a gift." The grin grew though it failed to touch his neon green eyes.

"I'm sorry I did that to you."

He out right laughed, "Because I'm dead? Don't be. Still, thanks. I know you stopped doing it to others after I died."

I nodded, I had initially thought I might've been the cause of his suicide.

"Anyway, my parents got a gift for everyone, with the exception of myself. Obviously, I felt depressed after being forgotten during the holidays." He looked deep in thought for a moment, "Actually, they did try to give me something from the basement as I gift. It was left unwrapped, behind my dad's back.

Anyway, I locked myself in my room. I survived on water from my bathroom sink and some granola bars that had been under my socks."

I was listening intently by this point. I wanted to know who it was.

"I killed myself three weeks later," he said, a true smile on his face, "The funeral was nice. Hell, it was a funeral fit for a hedonist. Small turnout, but that was to be expected."

The snow had suddenly picked up, along with a strong, biting wind. The ghost seemed to know that I wanted to go back inside. As he turned to me a slight hint of blue appeared in his eyes; I finally realized who it was, "I'll never forget you, Fentina." I sported a large grin as he looked back at me.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood now Dash." Danny laughed as he flew off towards downtown.

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><p><strong>HA! Ghost of Christmas past! Get it! Yeah, I know it is stupid. That is still the title of the chapter though.<strong>


	2. Home Again

**Yeah, so… My idea is still bothering me. It's now a two-shot. To the future!**

**Tags: AU, OOC**

**Disclaimer: If I owned it, it would be the first thing I mention.**

**January - A Danny Phantom Fanfiction by duo**

**Home Again**

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><p>It's been… I don't know, fifteen or sixteen years? I kind of missed Casper High. I didn't have time to play on the college team. Had to work two or three jobs every semester, but it was worth it. I got a nice, shiny piece of paper saying that I'm smart. Some may wonder why I choose to visit Amity still. True, I have many bad memories here, more bad than good, to be honest. Truth be told, I miss my glory days as a high school football star.<p>

Casper High is little more than a shell, nowadays. The city condemned the hundred something year old building shortly after I left for college. They built the new school just down the street. I'm think there is a chemistry teacher position that just opened up at the new school. I'm eyeing the Fenton Works position in New York, though.

Speaking of Fenton, I wonder if Danny still comes here. He became sort of a hometown hero, defeating malevolent ghosts and such. I heard the Fentons put him on their "White List". They back him up whenever he needs it. Evidently, one of the ghosts was my dad.

Yeah, he died in my senior year from a heart attack. I hear it was painful. The funeral was small. Just his latest girlfriend and I came. He left everything to her; no doubt, the skank helped him write it. I knew my father's sense of smell wasn't the greatest, but she smells like week old trash.

Anyway, evidently he became a rather powerful ghost. He tried to kill my mother, who was on a packed subway car. According to the paper, he "destabilized". Good riddance, I say. He was a waste of ectoplasm.

Ah, there's Danny. Looks exactly as he did last time, though, he looks a little weary and not depressed.

"Hey Dash," He put a smile on his face, but his fatigue made his smile look forced.

As he landed on the bleachers next to me, I waved, "Hey there, hometown hero."

He shot me a look, "I hate that title. I'm merely doing what is right."

Shrugging, I stated, "It is true though. You said in your interview that you can keep fighting until your reserves of ectoplasm get low," I shifted down to the row he was on, "The living things actually feel fatigue. Even the most athletic person in the world couldn't keep up with you."

He grinned, "Which is unfair, seeing as I never do cardio."

That elicited a laugh from me, with Danny joining in mere moments later. "Admittedly, I'm jealous. I didn't have too much time to work out in college. A flight of stairs and I'm winded."

"The great Dash Baxter, as out of shape as Tucker Foley," he chided jokingly, "Pathetic."

A chuckled slightly, "Actually, I'm worse," I corrected, "He started bulking up in college."

Danny was quiet for a moment, "Are we talking about the same person?"

I nodded, "Thought it would help him get the ladies," I put a broad grin on my face, "It actually worked."

"Was it another techno-geek?"

"Yup. She's actually a bigger one than he is," I took my cell phone out of the right pocket of my dress shirt and flicked through an album, finding the right picture and held it up for the ghost to see." It was at a high-class restaurant. Her long red hair flowed seamlessly into a shimmering ruby dress. Her face sported an enormous smile as Tucker, his thin, muscular frame sporting a tuxedo, kissed her on the cheek.

It wasn't long before Phantom burst out laughing, "She is like, the cliché geek," he wiped away a spectral tear, "Seriously, she has the headgear retainer!"

"She got rid of it shortly after I took this," I turned the phone back to me for a moment. I was silent for a moment, wondering if I should tell him now, "They're engaged. They'll get married after they finish their degrees."

He raised his eyebrows in shock, "Really? I wonder if I'll get an invite."

I took out a white envelope that had been sticking out of my left pocket, "He didn't know how to send letters to the Ghost Zone."

He smirked slightly, "When you see him again tell him Jazz's place will do." He furrowed his brow as he looked from the wedding invitation to me. I thought he might ask me.

"I'm married to Kwan. Well, not in this state," I smiled as I brought up the wedding picture, both of us sporting silky, white tuxedos, an even whiter rose in our pockets, our roses melding into one as we kissed in front of the ramanas roses, their pink blooms transitioning the change between our white suits and the deep red of the wall behind the couple's table, "We got married as soon as it became legal."

Danny was silent for around half a minute. "You look quite "'Dash' -ing," he roared with laughter.

I rolled my eyes. I know he looks young, but he has still had the time to grow up a bit, "Oh ha ha, haven't heard that one before."

He put a hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes, "Congratulations. Sam always knew you guys would get together."

I thought of Samantha Manson, who had graduated a few years before me, "She spent enough time around me those last two years of high school to figure it out."

Nodding, the geist (I took German) replied, "Sam was always good at figuring that kind of stuff out." He leaned back against the last row of the bleachers, "Paulina and Starr really missed out on a great source of gossip."

I smirked, "I think you're right. She told me stuff about some of my best friends…" Let's try that again, "Former best friends, that I never would've known. Paulina was obsessed with collecting anything that was supposedly collectible."

"She's a hoarder now," Danny stated nonchalantly, "I don't know how she pays for it all, what with her still working at the Nasty Burger."

"She's a kleptomaniac, I think."

"All I know is she doesn't seem to be all there. I think she talks to Pogs," I turned towards him after he said that with a skeptical look on my face. He appeared to be dead serious.

"Wow," I said after his expression convinced me, "I didn't know anyone cared about Pogs still. Let alone care enough to talk to them."

"I left a letter at A.P.S., so they would check on her," Danny said, a note of concern in his voice.

"I heard mention of her moving to an assisted living facility," I mentioned to the teenaged ghost, "It's good she's somewhere safe."

He simply nodded, "She was a single mom, twins."

"I'm sure her mom and dad took them in." I vaguely recollected her mom obsessing over having grandkids some day.

We sat for nearly two hours before the cold got to me. He suggested the Nasty Burger, which I eagerly complied with, feeling nostalgic. The food, as I recall, was overly greasy. I grabbed a strawberry milkshake. At least that has calcium, right?

After another hour, I finally gathered up the courage to ask, "You start talking to your parents again?"

He nodded, "After the Ecto-Exodous about a decade ago," he told me, "The ghost king, Pariah Dark, was set free from the Ghost Zone by some ghost named Plasmius, right?"

I nodded, remembering the news coverage well. I feared for the well being of Sam, Tucker and Val, I talked to them on the phone several times, each.

"So, it was impossible for me to defeat him and his army alone. My parents had been working on a sort of battle suit." He took a sip of his soda. It took all of my willpower to ask him if he could taste the cola. "It was powered by ectoplasm. It concentrated my energy into more powerful blast. I nearly overdid it. If it werent for the other ghosts pitching in, I would've lost my form."

"Meaning…?"

"It means I would've died, again. Forever this time."

I was silent. How does one say anything about death for the dead?

"Then there was that whole 'Disasteroid'" he made quotations with his fingers, "That was a fiasco, but we ended up being able to…"

"Make the entire world intangible, yeah, I remember," The strange feeling was etched into my memory, along with the sight of a large asteroid passing through me.

"Yup. The Guys in White finally took me off their wanted list. No one really hunts me anymore, save for a few ghosts I ticked off." He paused, seemingly reminiscing, "Those two events were more than enough to make up for what happened. I still don't live with them though."

Which explains why he wants his mail sent to Jazz, "You kind of said that earlier when you said you wanted your mail sent to Jazz's place."

"I guess I did. So… What are you going to do with your fancy Ph.D.?"

I decided about an hour ago, "Me and Kwan are moving back here. We'll get a nice little house and I'll be applying for a teaching position. Kwan might open his own practice or work at Amity General."

He smiled, "I'll stop by every once in a while. I really enjoy our talks."

I waved farewell outside the Nasty Burger to Danny as he hovered around ten feet above me, positively beaming at me before he zipped away…

"A month later we moved here."

Kwan stared at me, looking skeptical, "That's where you were?"

I nodded, "I just wanted to clear my head after all those years at college."

We were silent for minute or two before the beauty before me spoke, "I just hope he doesn't drop by unannounced. You know how much it bothers me when people do that."

Of course, I knew, he nearly broke up with me after I tried to surprise him with flowers, "I wouldn't do that to you again. I gave him my cell number at the Nasty Burger. I called him when you Okayed the move and gave him our home phone.

"I should've known, you're so considerate," he pulled me into a deep kiss, "I have to go to the hospital now. I'm working a double, I won't be home until around noon tomorrow." I pulled him into another kiss.

"Goodbye, honey."

"Go ahead and call Daniel to see if he'd like to come over tomorrow night, okay?"

I shouted out to him as he got to his car, "I shall acquiesce to your request, my lovely!"

He smirked and shook his head as he got into the car and drove away.

I'll go over to Jazz's and ask him in person. I need to catch up with her anyway.

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><p><strong>Okay, so that is the end of the story. Wait, what? You say you want to know what led to the events of January? Then read "The Room I Called Home", the prequel one-shot to the story you just read! Or at least I think you did. You may just be here the author's notes.<strong>


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